Description

Oil palm in Nigeria grows in the coastal belt which varies in depth from 100 to 150 miles and a riverine belt which follows the valleys of the Niger and Benue for a distance of about 450 miles from the sea. The main palm oil producing states includes Cross River,Akwa-Ibom, Delta, Bayelsa,Rivers, Anambra, Enugu, Imo, Abia, Ekiti, Ondo, Oyo, Edo and Ogun.

Palm oil forms an important part of the local diet in Nigeria because animal fats such as milk and butter are hardly consumed. It is used both as a cooking material and as an ingredient in soups, sauces and a variety of local dishes. The product is also needed for the industrial production of soap and confectioneries.

Consequently, there had long been a thriving market for palm oil both within the main areas of production in eastern and western Nigeria and between these regions and the non-palm oil producing northern region and Foraminifera Market Research seeks to expose the investment opportunity in the supply of the product to local industries in Nigeria through feasibility report.

The market for palm and edible oil is national. With a population of over one hundred and fifty {150,000,000} million people and an estimated national population growth rate of 5.7% per annum ,an average economic growth rate of 3.5% per annum in the past five {5} years, Nigeria has a large market for edible oil.

In 2005, in order to stimulate local production and attain self sufficiency in edible oil production, the government introduced the presidential initiative on the development of edible oil over a period not exceeding three {3} years. Under this initiative, attention was focused on the promotion of eleven scheduled oil seed crops which are oil palm seed, groundnut seed, Soya beans seed, cotton seed etc and production target was set for each of the crops under the programme as follow

1. Oil Palm: 1 million hectares capacity of producing 15 million fresh fruit bunches

2. Groundnut: 15 million tones annually

3. Soya beans: 670,000 1 million tones per annum

4. Seed Cotton: 1 million tones over the plan period

After five {5} years of the initiative, the domestic edible oil demand far exceeds the national production. The short fall in supply is estimated at about 30,000 tones per year. From the above figures, it is clear that there is a large and sustainable market for edible oil in Nigeria.

The return on investment on the trading of palm oil is estimated between 10%- 15%.